Buy Your Third Motorhome First

(y)
 
We are on our 5th in the U.K. 1 in the USA, All shapes and sizes, Loved all of them. Our latest is just about, but not quite perfect. Do we ever achieve perfection? So many reasons for buying a van.
Phil
 
I genuinely believe (hope) I’ve got it right first time. The only thing that will drive change is health (and or) 70yr old licence problems or we just wear the damn thing out… 🤟
 
i am still on my first, was looking for a pvc but went to look at the bessacarr which was in my price range and local, it had everthing i wanted and after a few small mods is perfect for us, i see quite a few motorhomes in for mot and there is only 2 that i really would have instead of mine
 
When we bought our first Motorhome from Marquis at Lower Upham, the sales man told us we would buy 3 before we got the right one, laughed at the time, we are now on our 3rd and it's just right.

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On our second now did loads of research on our first a Chauson 610 loved the fact not to long big bathroom decent lounge but found the drop down bed a nuisance getting in and out
Our second a Pilote 720 a class has all the good points of the first not much longer but with an island bed surprisingly I find it easier to drive than the coach built
However always looking at what number 3 might be 😊
 
Hired two and then bought so I suppose it is technically our third van even though it's the first we've bought - suits us perfectly and nothing out there would get us to change it.

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Neckender said:
6 motorhomes from 2004 - 2019 now we have bought a VW T6.1 Kombi 6 seater converted to a day van with king size bed and pop up awning for cooking and living.

John.
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I thought you had a Globecar, I must be behind the times😄
 
We're on our second and it must do the job as we've had it over 8 years. I think it's like wives some can accept close to perfection others notice the niggles more than the positives and swap a lot at considerable expense!
 
We are on our 3rd and have had it for 8 years, it is 5 ton and has been much modified to suit our long winter trips the latest being a compressor fridge freezer, so hopefully we will not need to change it soon.
I say hopefully because the C1 license issue is looming on the near horizon but with luck that should not force a change, well at least for another 3 years. 🤞
 
We are on our 4th
1st only lasted 6 months, using it proved it was not what we wanted
2nd lasted 2 years -right manufacture slightly wrong design, could not get on with wet room - soggy loo roll noooooo
3rd lasted 8 years loved it but big, decided to down size
4th so far 3 years, Hopefully this is our forever 🤞

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If hiring counts as your first one, we are just about to buy no.3 so here's hoping this is IT! Of course what you want/need from a motorhome can change so sometimes that is a factor.
 
PrettyandFluffy said:
If hiring counts as your first one, we are just about to buy no.3 so here's hoping this is IT! Of course what you want/need from a motorhome can change so sometimes that is a factor.
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I think it's a big factor. We never thought we would spend almost all our time in France in aires without hookups. We're also about to have our first big holiday without a dog it could easily change the way we use the MH
 
Like others here, we hired first and that gave us REALLY good pointers as to what we DIDN‘T like, as well as a few that we did.

Being inveterate campers and then moving from a sailing yacht meant that we were used to living for a long time in relatively small spaces. We had also developed an understanding of the need for self-reliance; if something goes wrong, you need to be able to fix it yourself (or at least jury-rig a solution until you can get a specialist to sort it out).

With that in mind, we knew we needed a fixed bed that did not need to be made up and put away each time, because sometimes an hour or two‘s catch-up sleep is essential when you‘re travelling. A drop-down bed wasn’t going to work because it can effectively take out the living quarters for others, so a separate bedroom area was the goal.

Bathroom-wise, we knew that a wet room would not suit. The shower is a place you go to get wet, not the loo! So, a separate shower was also a must-have.

Size was a big consideration. Womanthevan was adamant on this. 6m was the limit. 5.99m even better, for cheaper ferry crossings.

We knew, from hiring, that we could not get on with one particular heating system, which was incredibly noisy and unreliable. We also knew that another system was whisper-quiet and very effective.

Design and build-quality was critical; the squeaks, rattles and flimsiness that go hand in hand with cheap construction would just have spoiled any time away, especially if that time was spent fixing breaks and spotting the new disasters waiting to happen. We looked at brand new models from one manufacturer which seemed to be made like a film set; all looks and no substance. The internal doors were already falling apart with just delivery mileage.

In the end, we bought our ideal MH second-hand, paying almost as much as we could have for a new, poorly-constructed one. We love it and, apart from a wish for better mpg on long trips (which I haven’t given up on yet!) we wouldn’t change a thing about it.

So, Jim ’s article is spot on.
 
CazPaul said:
I thought you had a Globecar, I must be behind the times😄
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We sold the Globecar in 2019 Pats mum was very I’ll and so we couldn’t get to Benidorm and it wasn’t getting used much so we sold it. Nov 21 we bought a new VW T 6.1 Kombi.
04DE0FBC-98A8-4857-A6FF-2E1037E2A694.jpeg

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Billylou said:
That’s a cracking van, is there a UK stockist?
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No, they are only available in Germany.

2nd hand on mobile.de

4 berth, 4 belted seats (5 as a retrofit). On a SWB Sprinter !.

They did the same model under a different brand but on a VW chassis. Something like Swarmobile.

I want a RWD. You can still specify RWD in Germany, not in the UK. So I suspect it would have to be LHD. Which is good for me
 
We are on our second van. 1st van was a 2007 Burstner Argos and we really liked it a lot. We had it for 14 years before we sold it and got an A-class. Once the kids stopped coming away with us our needs changed, and with that, a different layout.
 
We tried to buy a third motorhome tweaking the order to get just what we wanted but Carthago didn't take any notice of the spec requested. We decided to stick with what we have and bought some new bedding and beakers 👍
 
EuroTrotters said:
No, they are only available in Germany.

2nd hand on mobile.de

4 berth, 4 belted seats (5 as a retrofit). On a SWB Sprinter !.

They did the same model under a different brand but on a VW chassis. Something like Swarmobile.

I want a RWD. You can still specify RWD in Germany, not in the UK. So I suspect it would have to be LHD. Which is good for me
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Found their website, seems like they no longer build the SWB. Shame, amazing fit out in such a small van. Hope you enjoy yours.

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